The House is an online flash horror game released in 2005. It lead to a sequel. (Do you ever walk into a dark scary frightening fearful house? Or live in one? You probably have, or do, in which case you might find this game super duper extremely relatable).
The game has a sequel, as well as the Halloween special. In the near future, the House franchise should be getting a 3rd part! The game is a huge hit in Serbia! Also, the game has been declared an official video game of Beton Liga Vrdnik, a soccer league in Vrdnik,Serbia!
Gameplay[]
During the game, the player must examine items that are in a room, sometimes multiple times in order to trigger an event. Events usually consist of a jump-scare or a new item being revealed to interact with. During each room, the player's heartbeat will pickup to signify progress in the game, finally leading to the climactic jump-scare before they are allowed to leave the room.
In The Game[]
In 1970, there was a house that belonged to a family of four. But inexplicably, the family were all found dead in what was declared a mass suicide. Since then, nobody had dared to enter the house in the fears that it may be haunted, not willing to risk the same mysterious death that the family did.
The player's goal is to enter the house and venture through the five rooms.
The Dining Room[]
The player begins in the Dining Room, though the only things visible are a framed drawing of a happy family and a window through an open door. A ball falls from the ceiling and lands, the sound of a child laughing occurring when it's examined. Eventually, a silhouette is seen running through the doorway and the glass on the picture breaks, leaving a hole surrounding the boy's head. A ghostly apparition resembling a headless boy is seen sitting on the windowsill before fading away again. The ball bursts in a splatter of gore and from the ceiling falls the boy's eyeless severed head.
Implication[]
It's evident that the boy was murdered by decapitation which possibly occurred in the dining room, though the tools and methods used are unclear.
The Bathroom[]
The player enters the bathroom where a thunderstorm rages outside and flashes of lightning streaming through the window. There is a functioning toilet and a strange bottle of medication on the floor, instructing to "Take Twice Daily" and labelled as Poison. There is a note visible on the sink cabinet, reading the following: "Happy birthday mom! I know you are suffering from an illness. But we're sure you will be fine soon. Love you."
Later, the note will read something different despite not having been moves or replaced, reading "I love you too kids. I will not leave you. I promise. I promise." A silhouette of a woman will appear outside the window and occasionally emerge in sever lightning flashes. Both the bathtub and the toilet will then fill with presumably blood and feces and the cabinet note will be blank. Finally, a woman with long black hair covering her face will slowly emerge from the bath water, before a hand suddenly slaps the screen and slide out of view.
Implication[]
Since there are only four known members in the family, the woman in the bathtub is likely the mother who was ill. This makes her the only ghost to appear in two different rooms. She may have been taking the medication to treat her illness before she died or perhaps used the medicine's poisonous qualities to commit suicide after killing her family. If the latter is the case, she either poisoned herself and died in the bath or the poison paralyzed her and she drowned in the bathwater.
The Kitchen[]
The player enters a tarnished kitchen where only a pair of stacked containers, a toy doll and a calendar can be seen. The porcelain doll hangs from a string from a shelf support and sway back and forth when touched. The calendar reads Friday the 5th of March with "Cancer Treatment" written above it. Alongside a repeating dripping sound, a faint series of screams begin echoing within the room. From behind an open doorway, a woman leans her head to view the player before disappearing. A silhouette of a woman will move across the wall and a student ID card will fall from the ceiling and land on a container. The ID belongs to Maria S. Julie from the St. Martin Scotte School, bearing her identification code and her signature. The ID card will fall from the container and a hanged girl in a skirt will suddenly crash through the ceiling and sway before the player.
Implication[]
The hanging girl is likely Maria S. Julie, also likely the daughter of the family. The hanging doll is a cruel foreshadowing of her fate as she was apparently hanged from a noose. The date marked on the calendar was likely intended for the mother, concerning the illness she was said to have on the note in the Bathroom. The woman in the doorway was likely the mother, revealing that she is stalking the player even after seeing him in the bathroom.
The Living Room[]
The Living Room
The player moves onto a trashed and barren living room, where only a portrait and a radio are visible. Turning on the radio, several songs begin playing before the radio shorts out. Looking at the portrait once more, the man's eyes move briefly. The portrait will fall from the wall and land on it's side, revealing a hollowed space in the wall behind it. A note can be found in the space that reads: "Sorry and goodbye, honey. I'm so lucky to be your wife. I will always love you".
The player will find a gun in the open space and arm themselves before a ghostly apparition of a man in a white coat passes by. The portrait's eyes will fill with blood and pour from his eyes and mouth. The player will fire the gun and hit the portrait in the head, blood spattering the background of the portrait.
Implication[]
The man in the portrait is probably the father, based on the letter from the wife found behind the portrait. She possibly shot him in the head as replicated by the player, and the gun and a written confession were hidden behind the frame to not be found.
The Corridor[]
The player enters the corridor and turn on the light with a nearby light-switch. They will find a final note on the floor that reads: "I'm sorry to God for what I have done. I love my family, so I kill my family. It's the only thing I can do to stay together with them FOREVER!"
A silhouette will pass along the wall from the window on the right and blood will pour from the light-switch, causing the power to flicker. A single drip of blood falls from the ceiling and lands on thee paper before flowing down. The ghost of a woman will appear before the player and slowly approaches them, the light suddenly going out and darkening the room. Upon switching it on again, the ghost appear directly in front of the player with her hair hanging in her face. She suddenly screams and her hair parts, revealing blood pouring from her mouth and her eyeless sockets. The game then ends and the aftermath is left unknown.
Implication[]
Even though she is already seen in the bathroom, the mother apparently returns in the corridor for a second encounter with the player. It's also heavily implied that the player dies from the ghost of the mother. Her missing eyes may wither be caused by decomposition after her death to the poison or she may have gouged them out. This may explain the blood in the bathtub as she may have actually gouged them out in the bath and her blood mixed with the water.
Overall Plot Implications[]
The overall backstory for the family seems to be that the mother had been suffering from a fatal case of cancer that she had been receiving treatments and medications for it. Her family supported her and prepared a birthday party for her, but her approaching death made her paranoid about losing her family. She apparently went insane and plotted their murders in order to be together with them in the after life.
She decapitated her son, shot her husband in the head and hanged her daughter, though she expresses great regret following their deaths. She then committed suicide in the bathroom; either from self mutilation, medication overdose or from drowning in the bath water. The ghosts of the family lingered in the household and remain with the mother in death as she had planned. The family seem generally indifferent to the player's presence in the household except for the mother who makes several attempts to assault the player. This is possibly due to her hostility and insanity or perhaps to protect her family and her house from intruders.
There is a clue about when did the mother killed her family and then committed suicide from the clues left in the game, first from Maria's student id that was valid from 1980 to 1983 and there is more clues from the calendar in the kitchen, the mother was going to have her cancer treatment on Friday 5th of march and if we look at the calendar from 1980 to 1983 then Friday 5th of march was in the year 1982 so this incident probably took place sometime in 1982.